I thought I’d spend some time getting back to basics.
After all, without them even the most well-intentioned SEO campaign will fail.
So, what are the three things:
1. Keywords
2. Content
3. Links
Keywords
Essentially Google is trying to serve people results based on the language they use when searching. SEO types call them ‘keywords’, people call them ‘words’.
Yes, Google is very good at spotting related terms but if you want to be found when people are looking, your site needs to contain the language they are using.
For some brands this rubs against the grain. Imagine for a second you’re selling sports shoes. Your brand guidelines state you should talk about ‘premium quality sports footwear’. But when you’re customers are searching for ‘those well cool trainers that’d look good with jeans’, they’re not going to find you.
Content
When planning content, your website needs to provide the sort of content people go online to search for. And normally this means ‘how do I…’ type content.
The problem though is there is a lot of content out there. 14 billion pages worth.
So, in order your content needs to be mind-blowingly good. It needs to be original, unique, offer insight and expertise.
Again, this rubs against the grain for some brands. The sort of content that’ll make you stop and stare is normally the sort of content that brands want to lock away behind complicated registration forms.
Links
Google uses links like ‘votes’. If someone takes the time to use your site as a point of reference and links to it, it’s a good sign to Google that your website has something worthwhile on it.
Now some links are worth more than others but the general rule is the more links to your website, the better.
But how do you go about collecting a bunch of decent inbound links?
There are lots of SEO companies out there, who’ll offer to list your website is 1001 online directories for a nominal fee.
Generally, I’d recommend these are the people you should avoid.
In reality, there is no shortcut to generating incoming links. First, you need the mind-blowingly good content mentioned earlier, and then it boils down to good, old-fashioned networking: guest posting on relevant blogs, for example, is a great way to generate inbound links.
In Summary
To try and put the basics of white hat SEO into a sentence would look something like this…
“Generate lots of quality incoming links by creating amazing content, filled with the language your audience uses”.
Simple.
In 2010, we achieved full Google accreditation and had more search-related ‘can you help us?’ conversations than you can shake a USB stick at.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is fundamental to the planning, building and growing of a website, simply because Google (and its competitors) wants to feature unique, useful and jaw-droppingly interesting websites in its search results.
With every development Google rolls out, the SEO landscape expands and this will continue in 2011. Instant Search and Search Suggestions now make the longtail just as important as that elusive vanity phrase. Site Previews will enable users to pick sites based on look and layout. There’s more to search than just picking the right keywords.
However, the point of greatest interest will be where search and social media meet. The websites that succeed in search will be the ones that make a positive contribution to the social graph of their online communities.
And what about analytics? Now you can track almost everything, the challenge is to ensure business decisions and strategies are based on data that really matters. So 2011’s key question won’t be “How are we monitoring our visitors’ behaviour?” It’s going to be “What are we going to do with this insight?”
Want to hear our ideas?
Darren and Lisa are our latest experts to express their point of view – and it just so happens they’re on opposing sides of the aisle. Darren believes that ideas are everything, Lisa believes it’s all in the data.
Watch Darren and Lisa go head to head as they discuss the relative merits of creativity and science. Then cast your vote in our online poll and join the debate.
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